KURT ATTERBERG (1887-1974): Orchestral Works, Vol. 1 - Symphony No. 4, Op. 14 "Sinfonia piccola", Symphony No. 6, Op. 31 "Dollar Symphony", En värmlandsrapsodi, Op. 36, Suite No. 3, Op. 19.

Description: A brilliant recorded sound accompanies this first in another new Neeme Järvi series. Most of Atterberg's symphonies have only one other recording - that in the cpo complete cycle - but his two more popular ones are offered here. The Fourth of 1918 was the result of an agreement with his friend Natanael Berg to write a 20-minute piece with a bass tuba heard somewhere within it (Berg's was the Pezzo sinfonico which cpo unfortunately did not record in its two-disc Berg project); Atterberg used several Swedish folk dances as material for his. The Dollar Symphony of 1927-28, of course, got the composer a pile of cash for winning the Columbia Schubert centenary competition but, in its ironic detachement and brashness, it kind of stands apart from most of Atterberg's other orchestral music. The Rhapsody is a romantically evocative work from 1933 using a sequence melodies from Värmland while the suite (four other recordings!) is of orchestrated incidental music from a Maeterlinck play with solo violin and viola. One hopes for the unavailable suites (2, 4-6, 8 & 9) to appear later in this series. Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra; Neeme Järvi. Chandos SACD hybrid